TL;DR SF’s 2026 IT conference calendar has three density peaks: March (RSA Conference, the world’s largest cybersecurity event at 50k+ pros [1]); June–July (Snowflake Summit + Microsoft Build + AI Engineer World’s Fair back-to-back at Moscone [6][7][8]); and Sep–Oct (Dreamforce + The AI Conference + TechCrunch Disrupt [10][11][13]). The 2026 standout: Microsoft Build returns to SF for the first time in nearly a decade [7].
2026 Calendar at a Glance
| Conference | Dates | Venue | Focus | Scale | Ticket (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HealthTech Week | Jan 10–17 | The Foundry, SoMa | Healthcare innovation | — | varies [15] |
| MongoDB.local SF | Jan 15 | The Midway | Database, AI | — | $100 [15] |
| NEARCON | Feb 23–24 | Fort Mason Center | Blockchain, AI | — | invite-only [15] |
| BSidesSF | Mar 21–22 | City View at Metreon | Cybersecurity (community) | — | ~$110 [2] |
| RSAC | Mar 23–26 | Moscone Center | Cybersecurity (enterprise) | 50k+ | free–$2k+ [1] |
| SREday SF | Apr 17 | Harness HQ | SRE, DevOps | — | free–low [5] |
| AI Dev 26 × SF | Apr 28–29 | Pier 48, Mission Bay | AI/ML (DeepLearning.AI) | 3k+ | $534–$854 [3] |
| Stripe Sessions | Apr 29–30 | Moscone West | Fintech, payments | 5–10k | $599–$999 [4] |
| DeveloperWeek Mgmt | May 27–28 | South SF Conf. Ctr. | Engineering mgmt, AI | — | <$1k [19] |
| Snowflake Summit | Jun 1–4 | Moscone Center | Data cloud, enterprise AI | 20k+ | $1,295–$2,495 [6] |
| Microsoft Build | Jun 2–3 | Fort Mason Center | Dev tools, AI (Microsoft) | ~2.5k | $1,099 [7] |
| AI Engineer World’s Fair | Jun 29–Jul 2 | Moscone West | AI engineering (10 tracks) | 6k+ | varies [8] |
| MongoDB.local SF (2nd) | Aug 13 | TBD | Database, AI | — | ~$100 [16] |
| Step SF | Aug 26–27 | The Midway | AI startups, investors | — | $75–$525 [9] |
| KCD SF Bay Area | Sep 2 | TBD | Kubernetes, cloud-native | — | free–low [16] |
| Dreamforce | Sep 15–17 | Moscone Center | CRM, enterprise AI | 140k+ | $999–$2,299 [10] |
| The AI Conference | Sep 29–Oct 1 | Pier 48, Mission Bay | AI research & builders | 5.5k+ | ~$1k+ [11] |
| SF Tech Week | Oct 5–11 | Citywide (a16z-presented) | Community, VC, hackathons | 100s evts | free–varies [12] |
| TechCrunch Disrupt | Oct 13–15 | Moscone West | Startups, VC, Battlefield | 10k+ | $75–$330+ [13] |
| OWASP AppSec USA | Nov 2–6 | Hyatt Regency SF Embarcadero | App security (training+conf) | — | varies [14] |
Headliner Details
Cybersecurity
RSAC 2026 (Mar 23–26, Moscone) — The world’s largest cybersecurity event, 2026 theme “The Power of Community” [1]. Free expo pass available with sponsor promo codes; full conference pass $2k+. Runs in tandem with satellite events across SoMa all week.
BSidesSF 2026 (Mar 21–22, City View at Metreon) — Volunteer-run community security conf immediately preceding RSAC, drawing practitioners who skip the vendor floor [2]. ~600 talk submissions vetted down to a tight program. ~$110 at the door.
OWASP Global AppSec USA (Nov 2–6, Hyatt Regency SF Embarcadero) — Four days of application security training (Nov 2–4) followed by a two-day conference (Nov 5–6) [14].
AI & Machine Learning
AI Dev 26 × SF (Apr 28–29, Pier 48) — Andrew Ng’s DeepLearning.AI developer conf with five tracks: agentic AI, context engineering, multimodal apps, AI governance, coding agents [3]. Intentionally hands-on over keynote-heavy; 3,000+ developers.
AI Engineer World’s Fair (Jun 29–Jul 2, Moscone West) — Billed as the largest technical AI conference globally: 10 parallel engineering miniconferences (Coding Agents, Robotics, LLM RecSys, Inference, etc.) plus two leadership tracks, 400+ sessions, 100+ expo partners [8]. Group discounts start at 5 tickets.
The AI Conference (Sep 29–Oct 1, Pier 48) — Vendor-neutral, founded by ex-O’Reilly AI Conference chairs. Day Zero (Sep 29) is capped at 300 for workshops + AI Hack Day; main conference is Sept 30–Oct 1 with 5,500+ attendees [11]. Five tracks: AI Frontiers, AI Builders, The AI Stack, Applied AI, AI Strategy.
Developer & Platform
Microsoft Build (Jun 2–3, Fort Mason Center) — First SF edition in ~10 years; ~2,500 developers in-person at Fort Mason; keynotes free via livestream at build.microsoft.com [7]. In-person ticket $1,099. Focus on Azure AI, GitHub Copilot, and developer tooling.
TechCrunch Disrupt (Oct 13–15, Moscone West) — Startup pitch competition (Startup Battlefield, $100k prize), 10k+ founders and VCs, Expo floor [13]. Broad badge tiers from $75 (Expo+) to full Founder/Investor passes.
Data & Cloud
Snowflake Summit (Jun 1–4, Moscone Center) — Snowflake’s flagship annual conf, themed “Making AI Real for Business.” 500+ sessions across 12 tracks, hands-on instructor-led labs, expo hall with 190+ partners [6]. At-the-door ticket $2,495; group rates from $1,495 (30+).
Startups & Venture
SF Tech Week (Oct 5–11, citywide) — Hundreds of independently hosted events presented by a16z: hackathons, fireside chats, demo days, community meetups across SF [12]. Each event managed separately; browse and apply via the Luma calendar. Most events are free or low-cost.
Step SF (Aug 26–27, The Midway) — Two-day AI startup festival: day one citywide kick-off events, day two main conference at The Midway with four stages, 50+ speakers, founders/investors/operators [9]. Tickets $75–$525.
Fintech & DevOps
Stripe Sessions (Apr 29–30, Moscone West) — Stripe’s annual developer/business conf covering payments, AI-native commerce, and crypto commerce models; 5k–10k attendees, workrooms, certification exams [4].
SREday SF (Apr 17, Harness HQ) — Community-run single-day SRE and DevOps conf; no remote option; talks on incident response, observability, OpenTelemetry [5].
Key SF Venues
| Venue | Neighborhood | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Moscone Center (N/S/W) | SoMa | Mega-conferences (RSA, Dreamforce, Snowflake) |
| Fort Mason Center | Marina | Mid-size developer events (Microsoft Build) |
| Pier 48 / Mission Rock | Mission Bay | AI boutique conferences (AI Dev, The AI Conference) |
| The Midway (900 Marin St) | Dogpatch | Startup / VC events (Step SF, MongoDB.local) |
| City View at Metreon | SoMa | Community security (BSidesSF) |
| Hyatt Regency SF Embarcadero | Embarcadero | Professional association events (OWASP) |
Bay Area (Not SF Proper)
These major events are within 45 min of SF by BART or Caltrain:
| Conference | Dates | Location | Focus | Ticket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GTC | Mar 16–19 | San Jose | GPU, AI hardware | $350–$1,595 |
| WWDC 2026 | Jun 8–12 | Apple Park, Cupertino | Apple dev, AI | free (lottery) |
| DeveloperWeek | Feb 18–20 | San Jose | Open-source devs | <$1k |
NVIDIA GTC [17] draws 10k+ at San Jose McEnery, with Jensen Huang’s keynote as a marquee event each year. WWDC [18] in-person is lottery-based for developers; the keynote streams free. DeveloperWeek [19] main event (Feb) is at San Jose McEnery; the Management spin-off (May) is at South SF Conference Center.